One of the primary arguments used by advocates who favor building a second bridge -- be it public or private -- at the Detroit-Windsor crossing is the need for redundancy in case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.

And while Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel J. Moroun moves forward with his own push to build a second bridge, his company on Wednesday announced a rather novel solution: It plans to engineer and build a floating "bridge-on-demand."

Detroit International Bridge Co. President Dan Stamper announced the plans yesterday at the Northern Border Security Conference in Warren, noting the mobile bridge could quickly "be called upon for deployment across the Detroit River, or anywhere else across the nation in very short order."

The company says it's contracted American Consulting Professionals of Michigan for the design, which will be based on floating bridge technology and concepts used by the U.S. military.

Scott Korpi of American Consulting said the bridge will be able to handle the full loading of a four-lane highway in any weather condition, and will be engineered to allow for maritime traffic to pass through the mid-portion.

Moroun is currently competing with the public-private Detroit River International Crossing to construct a second span connecting Detroit and Windsor. The Michigan Department of Transportation has been encouraging the state to join the DRIC, but legislation formalizing the partnership remains stalled in the Senate.

MDOT Spokesman Bill Shreck told the Detroit Free Press he was skeptical the floating bridge could handle needed traffic in the event of a disaster or attack.

"We're talking about a temporary floating bridge to handle, what, 3 million trucks a year plus cars?" he said. "That's not redundancy, it's a patchwork thing," he said. "If they think that's the answer to the redundancy question, they really don't understand the question."